Category Archives: Movies

If you are age 10-15, come at 1, 2, or 3 pm on summer Tuesdays or Wednesdays to enjoy using the library laptops and software! Activities include claymation, electric cars, pop-up stand toys, paper dolls, a name collage, masks, posters, puppets, submarines and rockets, origami, create-a-song, and more! At College Ave. Library, 4180 N. College Ave.

And did you know that College Avenue is on Facebook? Click the image below to go to their Facebook page.

AND DID YOU KNOW that Tom Cruise and Paula Patton are coming to College Avenue next week? In a movie, I mean. Here are the teen movies we’ll be showing July 15 – 21. Click on any title to see where else it will be playing this summer.

Sat., July 28, 2:00 pm

How do you confess to being a spy, and not really give away any information? That is the dilemma facing “Verity”, a very young British spy captured in Nazi occupied France. Forced to write a confession, she tells the story of how she and the pilot who became her best friend met and trained for the service. But who is “Verity”? And what is she really writing – a confession, or something much more? And what about the pilot? What really happened after “Verity” jumped out of that plane? This is one of those books that gets under your skin, and stays there. All the major characters are more than meets the eye, and a gripping, compelling story unfolds under the writings of “Verity”, and what happens after she’s done writing. Darkly moving, thought provoking, and unforgettable, Code Name Verity is a one of a kind experience. And, food for thought, the definition of verity is something that is true, as a principle, belief, idea, or statement: the eternal verities.

And here are the teen movies we’ll be showing July 15 – 21. Click on any title to see where else it will be playing this summer.

Sat., July 21, 2:00 pm

Insurgent picks up where Divergent left off….right in the middle of the action. From start to finish, this sequel packs the same kind of punch as the first book. In the not-too-distant future, the city of Chicago has been divided into five distinct factions. All are separate but equally important to society…until one faction tries to destroy the others. 16-year-old Tris Prior is fighting alongside others who want to stop a war from escalating. She feels a strong allegiance to several factions. But overwhelming guilt and sorrow for things in her past cloud Tris’s judgment until she can no longer trust her own instincts. With death and destruction all around her, Tris has to summon bravery, reason, and humanity….qualities she is not so sure she possesses. Now she must decide how to fight this war—as an insider or an outsider.

A powerful and worthy sequel.

And here are the teen movies we’ll be showing July 1 – 7. Click on any title to see where else it will be playing this summer.

Sat., July 7, 2:00 pm

Divergent is a sharply-written first novel by a recent Northwestern Un. Grad. This teen SF novel will be popular with the same readers who liked The Hunger Games series, especially young women looking for a strong heroine breaking away from a limited existence and facing difficult and deadly odds.

In the generations after a war which has destroyed much of Chicago, the residents have divided into 5 “factions”, each based on a philosophical principle. Beatrice, just turned 16, has grown up in the Abnegation faction, which believes that selfishness was the cause of the disasters of the past and that denial of self and focus on others is the key to avoiding future conflicts. The other factions are Dauntless (pro-bravery), Erudite (pro-education and research), Candor (pro-honesty), and Amity (pro-peace). The different factions tend to do different jobs within the community of factions. E.g., Abnegation provides government leaders, Erudite provide teachers and scientists, Dauntless provides security and defense, etc.

Once a year all of the 16 year-olds go through aptitude tests to inform them about which faction matches their personality. They can choose to remain with their families, or choose the faction that matches their aptitude results, or go against both and choose something else. They then become initiates in the faction they choose. If they do not choose or if they fail to fit into their choice, they become “factionless” and have to live outside the norms of this society, driving trucks, doing manual labor, even perhaps being homeless and impoverished (although we see little evidence that the members of the factions have any true understanding of what life outside the factions is like).

Beatrice is told secretly during her aptitude tests that she is “Divergent” and to never tell anyone. It appears to mean someone who doesn’t clearly fit any one faction but who has characteristics of more than one. The real meaning turns out to be much more significant than that. Beatrice chooses “Dauntless” and then discovers that all of the new initiates have to pass a severe series of trials of their physical and mental toughness. Not all will pass. The losers will become factionless.

Beatrice finds her toughness but also finds hints that this society of factions has the potential to come apart violently.

Very exciting, page-turning story with good main characters, although the “villains” are stereotyped. Still, not many flaws for a first novel and the energy of the story and writing style carry the reader over any beginner bumps. There is a level of violence similar to that of The Hunger Games. The second book, Insurgent, was just released. We’ll be eager to read that, too. It will be reviewed next week.

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Here are next week’s teen movies. Click on any title to see where else it is playing this summer.

Definition: 1. a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy featuring advanced machines and other technology based on steam power of the 19th century and taking place in a recognizable historical period or a fantasy world.
2. a subculture inspired by this literary and film subgenre: the fashions and gadgets of steampunk.